GoKawiilMatt Mullenweg has directed core committers to proceed with registering Automattic’s Akismet spam plugin on the new Connectors screen that’s shipping in WordPress 7.0, overruling a revert backed by several core committers.
“I did say that, and have changed my mind and we’re doing this,” Mullenweg wrote on Trac ticket #65012 last week.
The ticket was opened on April 1 by Automattic-sponsored core committer Jorge Costa, following a private conversation with release lead Matias Ventura. It proposed registering Akismet as a default connector in WordPress core, appearing on the Connectors screen even before the plugin was activated, alongside AI service providers OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.
The ticket was committed 36 minutes after it was opened.
Fueled-sponsored core committer Peter Wilson submitted a revert pull request the same day. His argument was that Akismet should register its own connector via the plugin API, as any other plugin would be expected to. He also noted that Mullenweg had previously written that plugins should register their own keys on the page, a position Mullenweg has since reversed.
“Akismet can easily be removed from an install and replaced by another anti-spam solution,” Wilson wrote.
Wilson also flagged that Akismet’s development branch had already added its own connector, raising the prospect of duplicate entries on the screen.
Bluehost-sponsored core committer Jonathan Desrosiers questioned what it would mean for the Connectors screen if installed-but-inactive plugins could appear there. Human Made-sponsored core committer John Blackbourn called out the process, noting no public discussion had taken place, no formal PR approval had been given, and the commit had been made during the release candidate period.
“It is inappropriate to make this sort of change during RC, especially within such a short period of time and with no public discussion,” Blackbourn wrote.
Independent core committer Aaron Jorbin said no additional connectors should ship with core until there were published guidelines covering what warranted inclusion.
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